[1] Infanta Isabel′s construction was authorized on 1 July 1882, and her keel was laid at the Arsenal de La Carraca in San Fernando, Spain, on 19 August 1883.

[1] In 1887, Infanta Isabel received orders to proceed to the South American Station at the Río de la Plata (River Plate) and replace the screw corvette Africa there.

On 10 July 1887, she collaborated with local authorities at Buenos Aires, Argentina, during disastrous flooding and evacuated people from Recreo Island in the Riachuelo River, saving 27 lives.

[1] On 25 December 1888 Capitán de fragata (Frigate Captain) Ramón Auñón y Villalón, a future Minister of the Navy, reported aboard as her new commander.

[1] The Revolution of the Park broke out in Argentina on 25 July 1890 and several rebl ships of the Argentine Navy bombarded the government palace and other public buildings.

[1][5] Auñón then boarded the Argentine torpedo ram Maipu to negotiate with rebel Lieutenant Eduardo O'Connor.

[1] On 12 October 1892, Infanta Isabel participated in a naval review held at New York City on the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus′s discovery of the Americas.

[1] As celebrations of the quadricentennial of the discovery continued, another major event at New York, the International Columbian Naval Rendezvous and Review, was scheduled for 1893.

In February 1893, replicas of Christopher Columbus's three ships, the caravels Niña and Pinta and the carrack Santa Maria, left Huelva, Spain, bound for Havana in the Captaincy General of Cuba.

Eulalia subsequently visited Washington, D.C., where President Grover Cleveland received her at the White House,[13] before heading to Chicago for the exposition.

To represent Spain at ceremonies in the United States recognizing what would have been the 75th birthday of the late President Ulysses S. Grant and celebrating the opening of Grant's Tomb in New York City, Infanta Isabel got underway from Mahón on Menorca in the Balearic Islands on 3 April 1897 in company with the armored cruiser Infanta Maria Teresa and proceeded to New York, which the two ships reached on the day of the tomb's dedication, 27 April 1897.

Of the remaining ships, the Numancia, the Vitoria, and the Infanta Isabel will be decommissioned when they require the replacement of their current boilers or other important repairs or careening.

Infanta Isabel was in the Bay of La Concha off San Sebastián, Spain, when she suffered a boiler explosion on 3 August 1900.

[1][17] In 1902, Infanta Isabel steamed to the Canary Islands to rendezvous with the torpedo boats Ariete, Azor, and Rayo, which had been stationed there since they were separated from Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Pascual Cervera y Topete's squadron in April 1898 when it deployed to the Caribbean during the Spanish-American War.

[1] From 8 to 10 April 1907, she was part of a Spanish Navy squadron that assembled at Cartagena, Spain, on the occasion of the visit of the British King Edward VII.